China in the Past Decade

Beginning of the millennium, the image of China to the western world was still farmland and rural people. Now it's the world's second largest economy. In 1999, the per capita income of Chinese urban dwellers was $700 USD - by 2009 that climbed to $2,774.88 USD. It is almost 2010. It seems appropriate to look back China in the past decade.

2001 - China became one of the last major trading nations to join that organization. This event fundamentally redefine China's relations with other countries, especially with the United States, its most significant export market, not to mention its neighbors in the Asian region.

2002 - Entrepreneurs allowed to join the Communist Party. According to old communist ideology, private state owners are considered capitalist pigs and not for the good of the common people. It was the first time in the 81 year history of the party that private entrepreneurs have been selected as provincial congress delegates.

2003 - China became the third nation to independently launch an astronaut into Earth orbit atop its own Long March 2F rocket. The astronaut Yang Liwei who is 5 feet, 6 inches tall came from a family of teachers was being held up to China's population of 1.3 billion as an instant hero.
China also went through a major political change, Hu Jintao replaces Jiang Zemin as president of China.

2004 - The total volume of China's imports and exports exceeded 1 trillion US dollars, making China the world's third largest trading nation after USA and Germany. At the same time, Shanghai overtook Rotterdam as the No 1 port in terms of cargo throughput, handling 382 million metric tons during this year.

2005 - China became the world's fourth-largest economy. It had squeaked by Britain by the tiniest of margins to become the world's fourth-largest economy, according to the World Bank. China produced $2.263825 trillion USD in output in 2005. That was just $94 million USD, or 0.004 percent, more than Britain. The Chinese government also stopped pegging the currency to the U.S. dollar.

2006 - To keep up with 1.3 billion people's energy demand and continue economical expansion within China, the Three Gorges Dam and railway to Tibet were completed. By the end of the year, China's foreign exchange reserves reach $1 trillion, becoming world's largest.

2007 - China surpassed Germany as world's third-largest economy. Its economy expanded by 13 percent to $3.38 trillion. That compared with Germany's 2007 GDP of $3.32 trillion. China was now behind only the United States and Japan. At the same time, the country topped the world with 210 million Internet users.

2008 - This is the year China offically came out to the world. It hosted the Olympics for the first time in a very spetacular matter. With Russia's help China stages its first-ever spacewalk later in the year. However, the year was also very bittersweet. Only 3 months before the Olympics, an 8M deadly earthquake in Sichuan left nearly 90,000 dead or missing. The country also became the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

2009 - China became the world’s second largest economy, passing Japan, which has held this distinction for decades. China’s 2008 GDP was $4.6 trillion and Japan’s was $4.9 trillion. The 2009 numbers are likely to be $4.75 trillion for China and $4.6 trillion for Japan. It will be several decades before China’s GDP can match that of the US. America’s gross domestic product will be over $14 trillion this year. China will gain on that number quickly if US economic output stays below 2% or 3% and China continues to expand at 10% or better.
China's communist party also turned 60 year old this year. 300,000 participants and 60 floats to highlight the country's achievements in various sectors of the society, economy and even military power.

Happy Holidays!

On behalf of Ruby Roads Premium Travel and Events, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! Tis the season to reflect and set new goals and dreams for the new year to come.

A Christmas tree is displayed in front of the National Stadium,
commonly called the "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

Shao Lin Temple Going Public

I couldn't believe it when a friend told me the news that the local government entity in charge of managing the 1,500-year-old Buddhist temple's tourism-related assets plans to join with China Travel Service in a venture that will seek to raise up to 1 billion RMB (approx 157 million CAD) in a share listing on either a mainland market or in Hong Kong.

A spokeswoman for state-owned China Travel Service (Holdings) Ltd. in Hong Kong confirmed that the two sides have agreed on cooperation and said her company would be issuing an announcement later.

I have always been a bit critical of Shao Lin going commercial in the first. Now I think this has gone a little far. Somethings you just shouldn't try to make profits off of such as a religious temple.

Shaolin Temple (少林寺) is located near Luoyang (洛阳) and 80 kilometers west of Zhengzhou (郑州). Shaolin Temple became associated with martial arts in the 7th century when 13 Shaolin monks, trained in kung fu, rescued prince Li Shimin, the founder of the Tang dynasty. After this Shaolin expanded into a large complex. At its peak it housed 2,000 monks. In the 20th century it fell on hard times. In the 1920s, much of the monastery was burnt down . When the Communists came to power in 1949, Buddhism, like other religions was discouraged. Land owned by the temple was distributed among farmers. Monks fled. remained at Shaolin in the 1960s were destroyed or defaced during the Cultural Revolution. All but four of the temple's monks were driven off by the Red Guards. The remaining monks survived by making their own tofu and bartering it for food. In 1981 there were only 12 elderly monks at the temple and they spent much of their time farming. Their religious activities were performed discretely or in secret.

In 1982, a film called Shaolin Temple made the temple famous and launched Jet Li’s career. It remains one of the most popular kung fu films ever. After its success the government and entrepreneurs realized there was money to made exploiting the temple. Old monks were asked to come back and new ones were recruited. Today about 200 students study directly with the masters who live in the temple.

Shaolin, its monks and their distinctive form of kung fu became branded in the early 90's under the temple's business-savvy abbot, Shi Yongxin. He moved aggressively to promote and protect the Shaolin brand, threatening to sue companies that use the temple's name or image without permission and serving as executive producer for martial arts films centered on the temple. Shi also has sought to upgrade temple facilities - installing lavish visitor restrooms equipped with uniformed cleaners and TVs that brought criticism and controversy.

The Shanghai-based newspaper Oriental Morning Post and other reports said the temple itself was not part of the negotiations between Dengfeng and China Travel Service. That deal calls for China Travel Service to invest 100 million RMB for a 51 percent stake in a venture under the Shaolin brand name that will handle sale of admission tickets, operate its cable car, cinemas, hotels and tourist bus services in Dengfeng. Who knows, Shao Lin amusement park coming soon and get your monk plush toy on a key chain in the shopping plaza left to the temple.

Canada's China Speaks French (mostly)

Located on the Island of Montreal, Lachine means China in French and apparently named in mockery of its then owner Robert Cavelier de La Salle who explored the interior of North America, trying to find a passage to Asia. When he returned unsuccessful, he and his men were derisively named les Chinois (Chinese). The name was adopted when the parish of Saints-Anges-de-la-Chine was created in 1678, with the form Lachine appearing with the opening of a post office in 1829.

Ville de Lachine is far different from the China on the other side of the world. This tiny town of 65% French origin could be Montréal’s best-kept secret. Lachine’s remarkably vibrant culture and rich heritage, including its museums and concert hall, the Vieille brasserie (old brewery), and the heritage buildings lining the Lachine Canal and Lac St-Louis.

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Ville de Lachine --------------------------China (中国)

Want to have a Unique Destination Wedding?

Marriage is one of life's biggest moments. All couples want a memorable wedding experience not only for them, but also for their guests. Recently wedding trends, especially destination wedding trends has been moving toward from the beaches to even more exotic destination such as China.

Tie the knot, renew your love or honeymoon at YuZi Paradise (愚自乐园). Nestled among the beautiful mountains of Guilin, China, YuZi Paradise is a 1,350 acre sculpture park dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art and culture in China. This out of this world park consists of 200 contemporary works by artists around the world such as Eberhard Eckerle and Allen Jones. You can have your wedding reception or a romantic dinner in a cave.

(Cave Dinning)

How about this quintessential Chinese adventure with luxurious comfort. This four day river cruise down on the longest river in Asia provides breathless natural scenery. The colourful villages or jagged grey mountains rising from the Yangtze River gorge will be the perfect backdrop for your perfect wedding day.

Please contact me at faye@rubyroads.com (www.rubyroads.com) if you are interested in finding more about these amazingly exotic wedding packages.

Are Canadians really that nice?

Forbes.com published their friendliest countries in the world list. Canada is rated overall number 2 on the list. Aside from eating from a tree, I always thought being friendly is one of Canadian's more well known stereotypes and we are the best at it. Here is our rankings in detail and it looks like Canada needs to work on our friend making skills.

Making friends: No. 11
Making local friends: No. 2
Joining community groups: No. 1
Organizing school for my children: No. 5
Organizing my finances: No. 3
Organizing my health care: No. 1
Finding somewhere to live: No. 2

The data comes from The Expat Explorer survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International and conducted by the research company FreshMinds. More than 3,100 expatriates were surveyed between February and April 2009. The respondents were asked to rate 23 factors related to their quality of life, including food, entertainment, transportation, health care, finances, education and their ability to make friends. Each criterion was equally weighted to arrive at a score. The overall ranking is based on the average score for a country across the criteria. Eight measures were also selected to arrive at an integration score: organizing school for my children; organizing my finances; organizing my health care; finding somewhere to live; making friends; making local friends; setting up utilities; and joining local community groups. The integration score was used to determine the friendliest countries.

The top 5:

Number 5: Malaysia
Number 4: Thailand
Number 3: Australia

Drum roll...
Number 1: Bahrain

For the full list click here.

I absolutely looooved traveling to Malaysia and Thailand and highly recommended for anyone. But two of my less pleasant traveling moments happened in Malaysia and Thailand. One involved a taxi who didn't know where he was going and wanted to drop us off on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere. The other involved name calling by a very pissy vendor who thought I bartered too hard.

What is Approved Destination Status?

According to various literature on Approved Destination Status (ADS), it is a special policy China has adopted for its outbound tourism.

ADS agreement is a bilateral tourism agreement whereby Chinese government allows Chinese tour operators to organize tours to the counterpart country while the counterpart government allows Chinese tourists to travel into its territory with a special group ADS visa. Only countries with ADS can be listed as group travel destinations for Chinese tourists and promote their destinations in China.

China recognised early on its population creates a huge opportunity for the outbound tourism industry. Chinese outbound tourism started in the early 1980’s when residents of Guangdong province could visit Hong Kong and Macau, provided their relatives in those two cities could cover their expenses. During that period, the application for obtaining a passport was very complicated. An applicant needed to show invitation letters from overseas relatives indicating the expense source, a company letter indicating the permission of the trip, and purchase several official stamps from different government agencies before submitting it to the official corresponding passport office, which was a sub-department of the Police Bureau.

In 1988, Thailand joined Hong Kong and Macau to share the privileges to obtain Chinese visitors, followed by Singapore and Malaysia in 1990, and later Philippines in 1992. However, the visits were limited to business travel and visiting friends and relatives.

It was not until 1997, that the “Provisional measures concerning the administration of outbound travel of Chinese citizens at their own expenses” was promulgated and approved by the Chinese Government State Council, thus announcing the official start of the outbound travel by Chinese citizens Since 1999, citizens can apply for passports with their personal identifications, which is a significant step to ease the outbound traveling restriction. As can be noted, China is gradually relaxing its controls on the outbound market.

Australia and New Zealand obtained ADS status in 1999; Japan in 2000, and 26 EU countries in 2004. In January 2005, United Kingdom was approved.

With the ease of the passport restriction policy and the expansion of more destination choices, Chinese outbound tourism has skyrocketed since 1998, after steadily been increasing for the past ten years. This growth has drawn worldwide attention. Countries are now making great efforts to attract Chinese visitors, an enormous potential market with almost one fifth of the world population.

China Gives Canada Approved Destination Status

Canada is one of the last few western countries to finally get the approved destination status from China. This status will be a huge boost as much as 100 million dollars annually to the declining Canadian tourism industry. Tourism BC being so close to the pacific rim could see a 25% growth. Click here for the full article.

“We’re late out of the gate. Countries like Australia and the United States have had the status for some time, so we have some catching up to do,” said Gialloreto.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement from Beijing where he was meeting with Wen Jiabao, premier of China.

The United States received approved destination status in December 2007. At the time 134 countries were on China's approved destination list.

“Achieving approved destination status with China is a major economic and cultural step in terms of building our important relationship with China, particularly as we prepare to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Gamers,” B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said in the release.

Small Commodity Mecca - YiWu (义乌), China

While you stroll through markets in China or anywhere in the world, there is a good chance that pretty scarf or intricate figurine you are eyeing came from this city called Yiwu. This small city of 2 million people located on the east central coast of China is famous for its small commodity and free market. Yiwu is also known as the "sock town" as it produces over three billion pairs of socks for Wal-Mart, Pringles and Disney annually. Yiwu is also known as China's number one producer of fashion jewelry. Other major categories include:

• Arts & Crafts
• Toys
• Jewelry and Accessories
• Stationary
• Hardware
• Apparel, bags, shoes
  
• Small electronics
• Textile

Trade shows of different categories are scheduled around the year. The largest international commodities Fair is usually held in late October at the Yiwu International Expo Center.

• Exhibition Area: 120,000 square meters
• Exhibition Booths of International Standard: 5,000
• Exhibitors: More than 3,000
• Professional Traders: 110,000
• Overseas Traders: 17,000
• Overseas Trading Group: 80

For upcoming trade shows click here.

Walk Through a Painting, Walk Through Guilin (桂林)

Guilin may be a city you have never heard of. However, if you ask a Chinese person, they not only will know the city and they will tell you it is the most pictureque city in China. During a visit to China former U.S. President Bill Clinton said "No place in China is more evocative of the beauty of your country than Guilin."

Two crystal-clear rivers flow through the city, encircled by mountains with unusual and bizarre rock formations and caves.

Here are 10 Reasons to Visit Guilin:

1. An absolutely legendary scenic Mecca, Guilin has the most typical karst topography in the world, with verdant hills, limpid waters, mysterious caves and grotesque rocks.
2. Take the Li River (漓江) Cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo (阳朔) and enjoy the fresh feeling of walking in a Chinese landscape painting
3. Pedal lazily through the rice paddies, fruit orchards, tranquil villages and extraordinary karst peaks of Yangshuo
4. Simply relax yourself in one of the bars or cafes at the nationally renowned Yangshuo West Street to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere
5. Watch the stunning "Impression, Liu Sanjie" (印象刘三姐) — China's largest outdoor performance on a natural stage setting formed by the Li River and 12 peaks
6. Enjoy a casual stroll through the city area, taste the famous Guilin rice noodles, and take the 'Two Rivers and Four Lakes' water tour around the city at night
7. Explore the peak-dotted riverine parks and marvel at Mother Nature’s masterpieces, such as the Elephant Trunk Hill (象鼻山), the Camel Hill (骆驼山)
   
8. Go through spectacular karst caves, such as the Reed Flute Cave (芦笛岩) and the Seven Star Cave (七星岩) and learn how the fantastic stalactites were formed
9. Take an excursion to the spectacular Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces (梯田) in Longsheng County (龙胜) and sleep in the Zhuang village (壮族) of Ping’ an
10. Hike around the mountain areas dotted with colourful ethnic minority tribes such as Zhuang, Miao, Yao and Dong

Largest Container Port in World

When Port of Shanghai can no longer handle the ever growing size of the container ships, this man made structure was built. Just south of Shanghai, the Yangshan Deep Water Container Port (洋山深水港) now can accommodate a world class container port. When the Yangshan island was first considered, over 60% of the port didn't exist. It was just a collection of tiny islands with fishing villages 32 km out from the mainland. The engineers thought about flatting the hills to create flat land. But they decided to build around the islands by filling the East China Sea. Area equivalent of 20,000 basket ball courts had to be built from scratch for phase 1 which started building in 2002.

Currently, the port can unload 3,000 and load 3,000 containers in under 20 hours (12 seconds per container!) with their state of art computer tracking and crane system. The port has 13 Ship to Shore cranes working around the clock to maintain schedule. Those beasts are 50 meters high. After the containers are unloaded, they are trucked off the port via Donghai Bridge. The bridge is 32 km long, six lanes wide and built on the open sea in 42 months. It is 12 times longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransico.

When Yangshen completes its construction in 2020, it will be the world's biggest container port.

Here are some more Yangshan Port stats when its completed:

• 50 ships can dock at one time
• The port quay will be 20 km long
• 25 million containers will be processed in 1 year or 70,000 containers in 1 day
  
• will cost approximately $18 billion USD

Fantastic Foods of China

China has over 5000 years to perfect its cuisine. It is no wonder it is one of the most popular cuisine in the world. Food is very important to the Chinese people. All important occasions are celebrated with food. People socialize over food and business deals are made over a good dinner. The Chinese pay a lot of attention to what they eat and love dishes that has a meaning or a great story to go along with it. They believe whatever animal part you eat will benefit that particular part of your body. It is no wonder that restaurants that serve animal penis became very popular in recent years, more popular than Viagra.

China is a large country and its food is very different from south to north, not to mention, its 56 different ethnics all have their unique take on food. Chinese cuisine is divided into 10 types according to regions: Beijing (京), Shanghai (沪), Anhui (徽), Cantonese (粤), Fujian (闽), Hunan (湘), Jiangsu (苏), Shandong (鲁), Sichuan (川) and Zhejiang (浙). General rule of thumb is cuisine from northern regions is usually spicier and saltier dishes accompanied with lots of noodles and cuisine from Southern regions is usually lighter and sweeter dishes that are preferred to be eaten with rice. Although I was born and raised as a Southern girl, I have taste buds for the northern dishes which I find much more flavourful.

Making a (very) short list of must try dishes in China is very difficult for me since there are so many great dishes!

1. Peking Duck 烤鸭 (Beijing) - probably the most famous Chinese dish, the Peking duck is usually served at table side with the chef thinly slicing the duck skin off a whole roast duck onto a plate. Then the skin wrapped in a thin rice pancake, hosin sauce, cucumber and green onion slice is eaten.

2. Steamed Soup Bun 小笼包 (Shanghai) - this miniature steamed pork bun is famous for the very mouth-watering soup inside. There is definitely a technique to how to eat these little guys. The trick is to place bun in a soup spoon first, nibble a small opening on the bun and suck the soup out first before popping the entire bun in your month.

3. Hot pot 火锅 (Chongqing) - It is noted for its peppery and hot taste, scalding yet fresh and tender. This is the quintessential Chinese social meal which people gather around a small pot filled with flavorful and nutritious soup base. Thin sliced raw variety meat, fish, various bean curd products and all kinds of vegetables are boiled in the soup base. You then dip them in a little bowl of special sauce. Be careful since the spicy soup base is burning hot.

4. Hairy Legged Crab 大闸蟹 (Shanghai) - If you love seafood, this is a must try! Ironic, this crab with the scary name is a fresh water creature. When it is steamed and dipped in soy sauce, you will find a flavour explosion in your mouth.

5. Candied Haw Berries 冰糖葫芦 (Beijing) - Any dessert that involves the word candy is an instant favourite of mine. The berries are dipped in molten sugar which is left to harden in the cold and sold on a stick. You can also find variations with oranges, grapes, strawberries, and bananas, or dipped in crumbled peanuts as well as sugar.

6. Salted Duck 盐水鸭 (Nanjing) - This delicious and tender duck dish is rich in flavour yet not greasy.

7. Broiled Chili Fish 水煮鱼 (Sichuan) - the fish is broiled and presented in a mini wok, completely covered in liquid with floating chillies. There are tons of napa cabbage, Chinese celery, mushrooms and lily.

8. Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles 过桥米线 (Lijiang) - a plate of thinly sliced raw meat (chicken, pork and fish), vegetables (beansprouts, chives and beancurd slices) and noodles are first served. Then mix and stir the raw ingredients into a bowl of hot piping soup. The noodle soup dish can be eaten once the meat is cooked and trust me the meat will cook in the hot soup.

9. Cumin Lamb Skewer 羊肉串 (Xijiang) - lamb meat is cut into very small bite size, grilled to perfection, slight charred and crispy on the outside seasoned with cumin and chili.

When in China, one just need to be very opened minded and not pass up any opportunity to taste everything.

Fantastic Foods of Canada

I love food! No matter where I travel to, trying local cuisine is always on the top of my to do list.

Canada is a country full of natural resources. Many of its food is inspired and came from these natural resources. Treats such as cookies with maple syrup centre, juicy and lean burgers made with moose meat and Indian candy is cubed smoked salmon are Canadian favourites.

Canadian food has many French influences. The most famous dish has to be the Poutine. Poutine is french fries topped with cheese curd and beef gravy. Originated from the dominantly French province of Quebec, the flavourful greasy spoon dish has even made its way into mainstream food establishments such as McDonald's and KFC to name a few. Although Chez Ashton made the Poutine popular and they are good, the best Poutine I have ever had is from Fritz European Fry House located in the bar district in downtown Vancouver (shocker, I know). Their Poutine is wonderfully sinful in every way.

"Would you like some bread with your meat?" is usually the reaction when you order a Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich from a cafe in Montreal. Yes, this sandwich is all about the meat that originated from the Jewish settlement in Montreal. The meat is always sliced by hand in order to maintain its temperature. Since it is so popular, whole smoked briskets are kept steaming and sliced up on demand. Schwartz's is the spot for this delicious sandwich! It is a must when visiting Montreal.

Believe it or not, not all desserts in Canada are made out of maple syrup. Nanaimo bar full of chocolate goodness is named after the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia. The best thing about this treat is it is easy to make at home. I have not tasted a bad home made nanaimo bar yet. (click here for a recipe)

One More Item for the Travel Gadget

eBook is not a concept that was invented yesterday. It has been around for a few years now. Amazon has just started shipping their eBook device called Kindle to Canada. I think I have to put this one on my fav travel gadget list and my Christmas list.

Aside from the capability of storing over 1500 books, here are some of its other features:

• Audio read back - so you can listen to your books
• You can read Word docs, PDF docs, blogs, newspaper and magazines as well as books
  
• SD card slot for additional memory = additional books/documents
• keyboard for search
• requires no PC and downloads a book in less than 60 sec
• only 1/3 inch in thickness and weights just over 10 ounces
  

One feature the Kindle doesn't have is it can't play MP3. Can't get rid of your iPod yet.

Click HERE for a video review on the Kindle.

Why China Would Not Appreciate its Currency?

In order to keep 1.3 billion fed and employed, China has to stay competitive in the global economy. One way to do achieve that is for China to keep its currency undervalued.

A simple example:

If 1 CAD = 6 RMB (Renmingbi):

Mr. Chen has to sell his handmade widget for 600 RMB a piece in order to cover his cost and make a small margin. Ms Smith in Toronto can buy this widget for equivalent of 100 CAD.

If 1 CAD = 5 RMB:

Mr. Chen's 600 RMB handmade widget will cost M Smith in Toronto 120 CAD to buy instead of 100 CAD.

Therefore, in order to protect China's economy, the Chinese government wants to protect its investors first. China actually appreciated its currency from 2005 to 2008 . Consequently, its export industry suffered a 20% decline. Many factories had to shut down. People even started protests. In respond to the financial crisis that started last year, China depreciated its currency again. This is probably one of the reasons why China is able to recover faster than the rest of the world from the crisis.

So why are countries like USA and Canada are putting pressure on China to appreciate its currency again? Don't they want their businesses to be able to buy cheap products from China? There are a few reasons why.

1. This one is the obvious. Less businesses would move their operation to China and less Canadian jobs would be lost.

2. Strong currency means stronger purchase power for the Chinese people. This enormous potential purchase power (which can possibly be the world's largest) can drive the rest of the world to make more and sell more products.

Check out XE for all your currency information.

Travel Gadgets You Should Get Before Your Next Trip

I love gadgets and travel gadgets are the best and most fun! Here are some of my fav travel gadgets.

1. Your Labtop - I think this one is a no brainer. Laptop is a necessity for business travelers. However, I also take mine on most of my leisure trips for blogging, keeping in touch with friends and family and entertainment.
2. SlingBox - This neat gadget is a TV streaming device that allows user to remotely view their home cable, satelite or Personal Video Recorder programming from a laptop. You can be anywhere in the world and still not miss your favourite TV shows.
3. Smartphone - Aside from its obvious functionality as phone, smartphones are usually equipped with built in GPS/Compass and downloadable language apps which all makes a smartphone a must travel companion. The most well known smartphone is probably the iPhone 3G. If you are looking for something to protect your iPhone, a Russian company is selling a $108,000 case made out of over 200 diamonds and 18 karat gold.


4. Vuzix iWear Glasses - I gave these cool glasses a try on a couple of days ago. I felt like RoboCop, but the glasses which project a virtual 62″ screen was unexpectedly crystal clear. Just slip-in a pair of these into your cabin bag and you can watch big screen movies all the way to your destination. It can be plugged into anything with a video port - portable DVD player, video iPod and any video playing gadget. It has rechargeable batteries which can provide 5 hours of continuous viewing which is enough for your flight duration.5. Noise Cancellation Earphone - Regular headphone are useless in the noisy in-flight conditions. A Comply NR-10 noise cancellation earphone is the sure way to guarantee a good rest. It has soft foam that will fit perfectly in your ear.

6. Coolpix Projector Camera - This little point and shot Nikon camera is the world's first camera with a built in projector. The 12.1 MP camera projects images up to 40" in size and a maximum distance of two meters. It has many other bells and whistles such as image stabilizer, smart portrait system with skin softening and quick retouch features. It is a powerful piece of technology that fits in your pocket.